A Light in the Shadows
by theboardwalkbody
Summary: On a stormy night Tiana tells her two young daughters a very interesting bedtime story about an unlikely love.
1. Introduction

It was a stormy night; the rain pounded the windows and the wind was so strong it beat against the house with such force the very walls creaked and groaned. Tiana worried a hurricane might be coming in as she tried to peek out of the bedroom window but was met with nothing but blackness outside. She gently pulled the curtains closed and turned to her young children. Naveen was tucking them into bed and Tiana couldn't help but smile; the scene of her husband tucking in their own kids still filled her with much joy.

"Mama," chirped the youngest, Aruna, "can you tell us a story?"

Naveen interjected, "I thought it was my night to tell the story!"  
"Mama tells them better! Mama's are longer and more interesting!" argued the older one, Evangeline.  
"But my stories are full of action! Of kings and knights and giant tickle-monsters!" He leaned over and tickled each of the girls. They squealed with laughter.  
Through panting breaths of air Evangeline spoke, "But Mama's are about love, Daddy!"  
"Yeah! Love!" squeaked Aruna.

Tiana chuckled and sat down on the end of the bed next to Naveen. She was still worried about the weather and wanted to be able to keep an eye on the kids without them getting suspicious or worried about why she was watching them so much instead of going to bed so she figured she'd tell them a story.

"Alright, alright." She reached over and tucked them back in, their flailing from being tickled had undone the covers, and made sure they were good and comfortable. "If it's a love story you want then it's a love story you'll get."

"Who's it about, Mama?" Aruna asked.

"It's about a man who lived when I was growing up. A man who had a very dark reputation. A man everyone knew as The Shadow Man."

Both the girls looked at each other and whispered the name before turning back to Tiana. They'd head about The Shadow Man before, how he had turned their Mama and their Daddy into frogs like in the storybooks, and how he had owed the voodoo spirits and they took his soul away. Oh they had heard a lot about The Shadow Man and everything they knew about him made them unable to believe he could be involved in a love story, so naturally they were very curious now.

"Yes, The Shadow Man. This story comes from the rumors that my Mama and Daddy told me when I was your age. You see, the rumors went that The Shadow Man was actually very old. In fact, they say he and Mama Odie were the same age -" Tiana started.

"Mama Odie!" both girls gasped. Of course they knew Mama Odie. In fact, they knew her so well that they considered her their own grandma.

"Yes," Tiana smiled and continued. "See, they say he owed his soul to the voodoo spirits because he used their magic to keep him young. They say he was so in love he offered his soul to the voodoo spirits and in return they would keep him and his love young forever. But she didn't want to dabble with the dark side of voodoo and it's because of this The Shadow Man grew bitter..."


	2. Meeting

He was sneaking up behind the young girl as quietly as he could; his light and lanky frame barely gave off any sound as he approached the girl sitting on the park bench with her face buried in a book. Her long, wavy, auburn hair blew gently in the warm spring breeze. He eyed it like a hunter, after all, it was what he was after. He crept up behind her, a pair of scissors already poised in his hand, ready to snip off a lock of that beautiful hair. When he was within reach of it, however, her hand shot up and rested by her shoulder. Without taking her eyes off her book she had somehow known he was there and what he was after because clutched in her hand was a lock of her own hair.

He stopped dead in his tracks.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" she asked, still focused on her book rather than him, when the lock of hair remained in her own hand for far longer than she was expecting.

"I...uh...How did you..." he asked.

"A lock of girls hair brings good luck. At least that's what they say." she answered. Finally she turned around to look at him. "Ha! So it is what you were after. Unless you were planning on cutting the grass with those scissors."

He looked at her and immediately thought about how beautiful she was. The yellow dress she wore on her thin, yet strong-looking frame, and the way it contrasted with her light brown skin. Her dark auburn hair that looked so soft and wavy, and her honey-colored eyes – everything was just so beautiful and he couldn't look away.

"How did you know I was there?" he asked when he snapped himself back into the situation at hand.

She let out a quiet laugh and handed her book to him. When he did nothing except stare at it in confusion she nodded to him to open it. Upon doing so he found the book opened to an exact page, a page that had a mirror taped to it. She hadn't been reading at all, she'd been watching what was going on behind her the whole time.

"Sneaky." he looked up and grinned at her. "That's a very admirable quality there, miss."

"So is having enough daring to try and cut off a girl's hair." she returned the smile.

It wasn't until then, when the dumbfounded look had passed over to delight that she was able to see how truly fine looking he was. Lithe, sure, but there was an aura of confidence about him that was attractive. She noticed he wore a lot of purple and black and the way the purples looked against his light brown skin was very appealing to the eye. Maybe the gap between the teeth is a little off-putting, but hey – you can't choose how your teeth look. Besides, the unusual color of his eyes were enough to make any blemish dismissible. She'd never seen anyone with purple eyes before in her life.

"The name's Marjorie Odie." She offered her hand to him to shake.

"Marjorie." he repeated with a smile, his french-influenced accent made the name roll of the tongue better than when she had said it in her slightly rougher accent. "Francois Facilier's the name and stealing girls' hair is the game." he shook her hand.  
She laughed lightly, it was like music to his ears. "Well, you're not very good at it are you."  
"No. I suppose not." he answered with a smile.

Somehow she had worked the lock of her hair into the hand he still had hers locked with in their handshake and then removed her hand from his grasp. "Here, take it. You can consider it a gift. So now maybe you wont have to go around chasing after other girls with scissors anymore."

She walked away while he stood there rooted to the spot watching her leave and wondering how someone had managed to pull off a slight of hand without him noticing. So many things about her he wanted to know more about and yet he couldn't seem to get his legs to run off after her.


End file.
